I have learnt all kana and my plan is to read a chapter of tae Kim a day, do my anki core 2k and jllab deck. But i know most people use Genki. I looked at the first chapter and am confused should I learn the vocab the do the workbook or vocab then textbook or what I’m very confused and apparently there is some stuff in the back of the book. If anyone can help out I would very much appreciate it.
2 comments
I don’t really know why this question comes up so often, to be honest. It’s just a textbook. When people say read Genki, they’re mostly talking about the grammar points. So read the dialogue, and read through and make sure you understand the grammar explanations. Feel free to do the exercises if you want to test yourself, or practice other language domains.
You just need some kind of foundation of grammar study before you get into the deeper stuff. That can come from a textbook like Genki, a website like Imabi or Tae Kim, YouTube videos like JapaneseAmmoWithMisa or Cure Dolly, etc etc.
EDIT: I’m sure Pixel’s plan below is fine, but it seems like a lot to me. I wouldn’t worry about trying to study Genki to the fullest or anything. Just read the dialogues in Japanese, make sure you know the grammar and vocabulary used (good time to start making flashcards, imo!) and go from there. If you want writing practice, you can, but I wouldn’t say doing that through Genki is my recommendation (instead, maybe just try making a small post on HelloTalk and asking for corrections every day or every other day). Same with shadowing, etc. Just learn the grammar and learn to read without looking up translations, and you’ll be fine. Don’t spend too much time sweating at the starting line.
Genki Study Plan:
Two or three 45-60 minute study sessions a day are a good goal. Example: Chunk A – vocab, kanji and dialogue; Chunk B – textbook; Chunk C – workbook.
Before studying the chapter, get the vocabulary and kanji (if any) down. Genki marks the vocabulary used in the dialogue, so it’s easy to prepare for. Start there.
Try reading the dialogue WITHOUT looking at the English translation. Try to guess the meaning from the pictures and the dialogue prompts. Check to see how you did.
Chunk A: Everyday practice vocabulary, kanji (if any) and dialogue, shadow the audio, review the previous day’s work… you can preview the exercises you’ll be doing so you can brush up on the vocab you’ll need.
Chunk B: Everyday work in one grammar point. Do the associated exercises in the textbook. If it’s a speaking exercises, do both parts.
Chunk C: Do the workbook exercises sometime later.
Don’t forget to do the reading and writing in the back of the textbook. You can get your writing checked on an app like HelloTalk. Do corrections and resubmit. Move on to the next chapter and repeat.